Can Matter be Created or Destroyed?

[Anomalocaris]

Tibs, how do you "loose energy"? My understanding is that it may take a higher amount of energy to make the transformation to the end product. It's just that the end product does not contain all the initial energy. In a closed system the total amount of energy would still exist, just not necessarily in the transformed product. If course I could be wrong, ain't no ricket scientwist.

"Lose" is probably the wrong word to use, but ultimately although the total amount of energy would still exist, some of that energy would be seen as "wasted" in the form of heat / light, etc.

Ultimately, the more energy transfers that take place, the more wasted energy, and after a period of time, that energy spreads out evenly across space, resulting in the heat death of the universe.

Maybe another way of thinking about it is energy itself is useless for doing anything no matter how much of it there is.   To make energy do things requires the energy to be unevenly distributed to start with.  Every time something is done with the energy the energy becomes more evenly distributed then before.

Eventually when enough things had been done throughout the universe to even out the distribution of energy, the energy in the universe becomes too evenly distributed throughout the entire universe for anything further to be done anywhere in the universe.  When this happens the heat death of the universe occurs.

So total amount of energy never changed.  But the amount of energy that can do work eventually all went away.